Thoughts on writing, reading, and poetry. With the occasional diversion, bien sûr.

Monday, January 02, 2012

Starting the year out right

For the past few years, I've had a personal New Year's tradition.

On the first day of the year, I make sure to spend a bit of time doing the things I most want to do during the year. I won't tell you what all of them are, but I am happy to say that yesterday included time with my loved ones, a nice walk, some tai chi, cooking, a bit of cleaning, organizing, and financial stuff, some writing, and some reading of poetry.

Kay Ryan's marvelous "Chinese Foot Chart" clean took my breath away. You can read the whole thing at the Kenyon Review blog (I've omitted the first six lines here), but here's how it ends:

. . . We are no
match for ourselves
but our own release.
Each touch
uncatches some
remote lock. Look,
boats of mercy
embark from
our heart at the
oddest knock.

What a lovely way to start the year, boats of mercy embarking from my heart . . .

About Me

I'm a poet and children's book author. My current projects are a biography of Jane Austen written in verse using period forms and an early middle grade novel involving garden gnomes. (And yes, these are separate projects. Thus far, I've found no evidence of interaction between Jane Austen and any gnomes.)